Win League Cup or 5 seasons in Champions League? The real meaning of this Newcastle United question | OneFootball

Newcastle United fans, regular Champions League football or win the League (Carabao) Cup?

Certainly not a question we found ourselves having to ponder during a decade and a half of Mike Ashley using us solely to advertise his trampy shops.

Thankfully, things have moved on.

With Eddie Howe replacing Steve Bruce (now shopping in the Blackpool branches of Greggs) and ambitious owners buying out the FCB, we can dare to dream once again.

I am always intrigued when The Mag asks this question of contributors, usually in advance of a new season as part of a questionnaire sent out to regular/irregular contributors (I’m happy to contribute next/any time, if the relevant person at The Mag is reading this).

The question usually goes something like this…

‘Would you rather Newcastle United qualified to play Champions League football in all of the next five seasons, or finish mid-table all five seasons BUT win the League (Carabao) Cup?’

As I say, I am always intrigued by the question and of course, what the Newcastle United fans, The Mag contributors, have to say in reply to it.

There is usually a pretty even split which goes something like this…

We haven’t won a trophy in a million years and I want to see us win something before I peg it, so it has to be the League Cup.

Obviously I want NUFC to win something but playing Champions League football every season would be class. This kind of answer often then qualified by The Mag contributor saying that instead of the League Cup, if it was the FA Cup, the Premier League, the Champions League, then maybe the answer would be different.

What do I think?

Well for me, I don’t think The Mag contributors are really understanding what the real question really is here, or very very few of them anyway.

The question isn’t really about whether you want to watch Champions League football or win the League Cup.

Unless I am getting it totally wrong… and I’m absolutely confident I am not, the person at The Mag sending out this question, is asking something else altogether.

What they are really asking fans/contributors is do they choose winning the League Cup, or Newcastle United putting themselves into a position where financially the club can compete with all other clubs on a pretty equal footing, whether that is the trying to win the League Cup, FA Cup, Premier League and yes, even the Champions League.

Winning the League Cup would be great, the first trophy most of us would have seen in our lifetimes. The first silverware in 56+ years, the first domestic trophy in 70+ years.

However, in terms of setting the club up for future success, particularly in a financial sense, winning a League Cup would be all but meaningless. A one-off £5m-£10m boost at the most.

Whilst five years in a row of Champions League qualification…

That would be the massive game changer.

Five years in a row of Champions League money and football would catapult us into that upper echelon and smash it open. That half a decade of Champions League qualification would see NUFC bridge the gap and see the Newcastle United revenues at the very least match those of many of the self-entitled six, who currently control things financially.

Newcastle United would be at last competing on an equal footing (or better) when it came to transfer fees and wages. Forced to sell promising young players they wanted to keep, just to satisfy PSR? A thing of the past.

Plus of course five years of Champions League football would also massively help attract players to the club as well.